Florist delivers his aloha to health care workers with free flowers

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Kaiwen Wang Nobriga has always had a fondness for flowers.

He and his husband own a small business called Gentle Beast Floral. He loves how flowers can change a person’s perspective.

“Every time I give away flowers, or every time we deliver flowers, we see those facial expressions. They are priceless,” he said.

This month, Wang Nobriga started a project called “Choose love.” He was moved by the debate over vaccines and the selflessness of health care workers who care for COVID patients.

They get his flowers for free.

“They still have to go to work and put their own families and kids, parents in risk of the COVID,” he said.

Each week, he delivers a dozen brightly colored arrangements to nurses and doctors who contact him through Instagram or through his website.

“I can see they have those marks from wearing PPE all day long. I can see how tired and exhausted they are. You can see their face brighten up once they receive the flowers. It means a lot to me,” he said.

Appreciation messages have flooded his inbox.

Texts say things like, “I appreciate your act of kindness” and “Thank you for thinking of us.” He said, “They tell me, ‘You have no idea how much you impact my day,’ or how much it means to them.”

The flowers he gives away include locally grown and imported flowers. Each arrangement looks different depending on the flowers he has in stock.

“I just want to show something really small, just to say thank you for doing this,” he said.

He pays for the project out of his own pocket. But it’s growing so fast he’s created a tshirt with the image of a heart made up of roses that he intends to use as a fundraiser.

“We’re going to sell the shirt, and all the profits will go to funding this project to make it go as long as it can,” he said.

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